Exhibit 5: Fulfilled Prophecy
The 26th chapter of Ezekiel records a prophecy against Tyre.
7For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring from the north upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, with horses and
chariots and with horsemen and a host of many people.
8He shall slay with the sword your daughters [the towns and villages] in the level area [on the mainland], and he shall make a fortified wall
against you and cast up a siege mound against you and raise up a roof of bucklers and shields as a defense against you.
9And he shall set his battering engines in shock against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.
10Because of the great number of [Nebuchadrezzar's] horses, their dust will cover you; your walls [O Tyre] will shake at the noise of the
horsemen and of the wagon wheels and of the chariots, when he enters into your gates as men enter into the city in whose walls there has been made a
breach.
11With the hoofs of his horses [Nebuchadrezzar] will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your strong pillars or
obelisks will fall to the ground.
12And [your adversaries] shall make a spoil of your riches and make booty of your merchandise. And they shall break down your walls and destroy
your pleasant houses, and they shall lay the stones and the timber and the very dust from your demolished city out in the midst of the water [between
the island and the mainland city site to make a causeway].
13And I will cause the noise of your songs to cease, and the sound of your lyres shall be no more heard.
14And I will make you [Tyre] a [c]bare rock; you shall be a place upon which to spread nets; you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have
spoken it, says the Lord God.
15Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles and coastlands shake at the sound of your fall when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is
made in the midst of you?
16Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and strip off their embroidered garments; they
shall clothe themselves with tremblings; they shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble every moment and be astonished at you and appalled.
17They shall take up a lamentation over you and say to you, How you are destroyed and vanished, O renowned city that was won from the seas and
inhabited by seafaring men, renowned city that was mighty on the sea, she and her inhabitants who caused their terror to fall upon all who dwell
there!
Predictions:
1. That Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, would conquer Tyre (vv. 7-1 1).
2. That the city would be made desolate (v. 4).
3. That it would be thrown into the sea (v. 12).
4. That it would become a place to spread nets upon (v. 14).
5. That its maritime supremacy would cease forever (v. 17).
Guess what? It all was fulfilled.
Here's what actually happened as verified by secular historians.
In 590 BC, Ezekiel makes his prediction.
Four years later, in 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar attacks the coastal city of Tyre.
One year later, in 585 BC most of Tyre's inhabitants move out to a nearby island and rebuild.
17 years after the initial prophecy in 573 BC, Nebuchadnezzar finally destroys the coastal city. That's part one of the prophecy.
Two hundred years after Ezekiel goes to his grave, in 333 BC Alexander the Great attacks the island city by scraping debris from the original coastal
city and throwing it into the water to build a land bridge to it.
Centuries later, in AD 1321 the island city is destroyed by Muslims during the Crusades.
Today, the original mainland site of Tyre is as "bare as a rock." There is a city named Tyre, but it exists only as a small fishing village down the
coast from the ancient city.
Ezekiel couldn't have guessed that those things would happen. The story of Tyre and others is evidence that God directed the writing of the Bible.
History of Tyre
